Impact Global Location: Burundi

REF impact found 8 Case Studies

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Summary of the impact

Transitional Justice Institute's (TJI) work on gender, conflict and
transition demonstrates remarkable international impact, showing effects
and benefits to institutional norms and policies, civil society
positioning and legal enforcement at the state level. Knowledge transfer
provided by TJI research has influenced policy and legal change in the
regulation of gender norms in conflict and post-conflict settings. Debates
triggered by TJI scholarly outputs have shaped policy agendas and critical
responses to them. The impact is regional, national and international.

Submitting Institution

University of Ulster

Unit of Assessment

Law

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health ServicesStudies In Human Society: Sociology, Other Studies In Human Society

Summary of the impact

Dr Toby Ord is the founder of an international organisation called Giving
What We Can. This organization is dedicated to the fight against
poverty in the developing world. Its members pledge to give at least 10%
of their income to aid and to direct their giving to the organisations
that have a demonstrated ability to use their incomes most efficiently.
The impetus for the founding of the organization was provided by Dr Ord's
early work in ethics. He subsequently undertook additional research into
how his ethical ideas could be put into practice. The fruits both of this
research and of related research by other Oxford philosophers appear on
the organisation's website, where, through a combination of pure and
applied philosophy, the ethical case for making the pledge is urged. The
arguments advanced have proved to be extremely persuasive: many people
have been moved by them, and to great effect. The organisation has over
326 members, from seventeen countries, who together have pledged to give
over US $130,000,000 to charity.

Summary of the impact

Research conducted by the Centre for the Study of Poverty and Social
Justice (CSPSJ) led to a new way of assessing child poverty in developing
countries. This novel method (termed the Bristol Approach) resulted in the
United Nations General Assembly's adoption, for the first time, of an
international definition of child poverty (2006). It also underpinned
UNICEFs Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities (2008-10),
which was run in over 50 countries. In the last ten years, the CSPSJ's
work has put child poverty at the centre of international social and
public policy debates. Its researchers have advised governments and
international agencies on devising anti-poverty strategies and programmes
that specifically meet the needs of children, and have significantly
influenced the way child poverty is studied around the world. The Centre
has developed academic and professional training courses for organisations
like UNICEF on the issues of children's rights and child-poverty. Our work
has also spurred NGOs such as Save the Children to develop their own
child-development indices, and so has had a direct and profound impact on
the lives of poor children around the planet.

Submitting Institution

University of Bristol

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health ServicesStudies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Sociology

Summary of the impact

Research at Oxford by members of the International Growth Centre (IGC),
funded by the Economic
and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International
Development (DFID),
has played an important role in shaping two key areas of monetary and
exchange rate policy
formulation in East Africa.

Research on food prices and inflation in Tanzania is providing
the technical basis for the
discussions of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of
Tanzania, and has contributed
to current thinking by the African Development Bank (ADB) on policy
responses to global food
price volatility in East Africa.

Work on exchange rate policy has helped shape the Draft Protocol
on East African Monetary Union
currently being negotiated between the East African Community (EAC)
partner states (Kenya,
Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi).

Research Subject Area(s)

Summary of the impact

Reintegrating ex-combatants after war is critical to the success of
peacebuilding and it is one of the top priorities for the United Nations
during post-war transition. Research on ex-combatant disarmament,
demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) by Dr Jaremey McMullin was the
basis for three major policy reports for the UN on DDR in Liberia and
Burundi. These reports have had substantial impacts on UN thinking about
DDR and on programs and policies for ex-combatants after war. DDR Senior
Managers at the UN continue to use the reports to discuss program
innovations and lessons learned that Dr McMullin identified and analysed,
and they use his reports as a model for the kind of assessment the UN
seeks to commission for subsequent peacekeeping and peacebuilding
programs. One of the reports also led to a multi-million dollar program
for additional support for ex-combatants in Liberia in 2009 and influenced
the contours and scope of that program.

Submitting Institution

University of St Andrews

Unit of Assessment

Politics and International Studies

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Summary of the impact

This research, commissioned by UNICEF between September 2010 and December
2012, and led by Professor Mario Novelli, University of Sussex, examines
the role of education in peacebuilding in conflict-affected states. The
findings were directly employed by UNICEF to create a Dutch
government-funded, four-year, $200 million, Peacebuilding, Education and
Advocacy Programme (PBEA) now operating in 13 countries (2012-16). The
findings successfully challenged the UN's approach to peacebuilding, which
prioritises investment in security, democracy and economic reforms, making
a strong case for greater investment in education programming in
post-conflict settings. The findings form part of a paper commissioned by
the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), where it is stated that the
social sectors, including education and health, require a bigger role in
peacebuilding operations. Both the UNICEF PBEA programme and the shift in
UN Peacebuilding strategy are likely to make a positive long-term impact
on children's and adolescents' lives in conflict contexts.

Submitting Institution

University of Sussex

Unit of Assessment

Education

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health ServicesStudies In Human Society: Political Science

Summary of the impact

Through training courses, briefings and written reports, Justin
Willis and Chris Vaughan have influenced policy-making and
contributed to professional development in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (FCO), Department for International Development (DfID), and
Ministry of Defence (MoD), as well as other governments. They have had
similar impacts on NGOs and multilateral bodies, including the African
Union and agencies of the United Nations. In so doing, they have
contributed to innovation and entrepreneurial activity through the
expansion of a non-governmental organisation, the Rift Valley Institute
(RVI).

Summary of the impact

A key challenge for Western policy makers and legal practitioners in
formulating justice and security responses to mass atrocity in the African
Great Lakes region is to understand the political, social and cultural
causes of conflict, and the manner in which past conflicts can be resolved
and potential future conflicts prevented. Phil Clark's research sheds
much-needed light on these issues, and assesses the nature and impact of
both local and international transitional justice responses. This research
has prompted his active engagement with international judicial processes
and debates on aid policy, encouraging international actors to be more
aware of local dynamics around conflict and justice, with the wider aim of
maintaining the vulnerable stability of post-conflict nations in Africa.